Pregnancy and Tea.

Hi Steepster!

I haven’t posted in a while, mostly because I recently found out I am pregnant. Unfortunately, for Christmas I received a generous gift of “Tea of Month” from one of my favorite distributors and am too scared to drink any of it.

I have tried to research steeping safely while pregnant; however, there is some contradicting information. Obviously, drinking caffeine while pregnant needs to be limited to about one beverage per day.

What I’m concerned about are the herbal teas causing relaxation of muscles. Also, I have read that green tea can interfere with folic acid absorption.

Is there any other/extended information you have for a tea-missing pregnant lady??

Mostly I would ask your DR. I also found conflicting info on the internet. To be safe you could make sure the tea is sealed well and enjoy it later.

I do agree about the green tea though. When I found out I was PG I stopped greens and mostly stuck to herbals or an occasional black. I think the caffeine “rule” is a bit overrated. I had chocolate while PG and caffeine (not coffee, just some pop) and my son was just fine. My mom had wine back in the 70s with my bro and I. The rules just change all the time because people overindulge.

Of course, take this for what it’s worth, I’m done a lot of internet research. Talk to your doctor. However, I have heard a lot of things about Rooibos being a great option for pregnancy. Also, anything that is just fruit should be fine I believe. again, check with dr, this is just what my research tells me.

I hate to be a broken record, but talk to your doctor! I would avoid caffeine and anything too processed if I were you, but it is your body and it knows what it needs. If you feel good and are drinking tea, then excellent. If not, lower the amount you have or cut it out, but that goes for everything you consume. Practice moderation and stay in tune with how you are feeling day-to-day. A journal might be a good idea to keep track and a wonderful gift for your child when they’re older!

Thanks! Yes – a journal is a great idea. I haven’t drank but maybe 3 cups of tea since I found out I was pregnant (5 weeks ago) and I’m now 8 weeks along. So, I feel like I’m doing pretty well with that.

With herbal teas, I’d take it on a case by case basis. They are going to have different ingredients so one blend might have negative effects while others don’t. Everyone has advice on what you should or shouldn’t do or eat and drink when you are pregnant. MY advice is to listen to your body and do what feels right to you.

Congratulations on the pregnancy! Babies are awesome. Hope you get a good one! ;)

I just had my first (and only!) baby last April and I ended up quitting tea completely because I was worried about the effects. I didn’t want too much caffeine, and I was worried about how the herbal teas would interact with me/the baby. (This tea might cause miscarriage, this one might blah blah blah.)

I had asked my doctor a few times about what was safe, and basically all she told me was that so long as I kept my caffeine down, and didn’t drink a lot of the herbals, I wouldn’t really be consuming anything at a high enough level that it would do harm to the baby. And that seems pretty reasonable. When you look online and it says that they can’t prove that this tea is safe for pregnancy it’s because it’s hard to do studies on pregnant women – not that the herbal tea or whatever is necessarily dangerous.

I did drink a bit of ginger tea as it helped with the nausea, and if I had to do it all again I wouldn’t have quit black/green teas completely. (I replaced my tea consumption with a sugar addiction and gain 60 pounds, which I thankfully have dropped now). Also, if I had known about rooibos then I would’ve drank that too! But it’s silly how much I worried about tea when I was pregnant, and now that I’m breastfeeding I drink 2 cups of caffeinated tea a day without any thought.

I was overly-cautious but I think what she was saying was moderation is the key.

This is great to know. I think we’re exactly the same. My midwife said the same thing about herbals – it would take a lot of it to cause problems. However- when you hear something is going to be bad for baby – you don’t want to do it! :) Congrats on your weight loss and baby! i hope I’m as successful as you were.

I was so worried about rosemary/sage/thyme etc that I didn’t even use them in my turkey because some of those herbs are dangerous, but again… how much would I have actually ingested though? But then you google something and everything online stresses you out, so it’s just easier to not do something than to sit there and stress out about it.

But it’s tough because everything is bad for you. No deli meat, no soft-cooked eggs, no eggnog, no sprouts, etc. I had a huge list of things to avoid that I followed without question for the first 5 months, and then I realised that the occasional hot dog wouldn’t hurt me and just relaxed a little.

Good luck with everything! :D I’m sure you’ll drop the weight too – I did it with breastfeeding mostly – no exercise!

Also, avoid anything with lapacho bark in it. It’s not a common tea ingredient, but it’s definitely in a few out there (e.g. Amaretto by DavidsTea). I’ve read that it’s bad for pregnancy… I’m not entirely sure why, but why risk it?